Creative Litigation Fails Because Crime Does not Pay
Post 5109
See the full video at https://lnkd.in/gWgSsVgE and at https://lnkd.in/g9ng3A3M, and at https://zalma.com/blog plus more than 5100 posts.
Prisoner Acting as His Own Lawyer Misses Prerequisite to His Suit
In this pro se prisoner case brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, United States Magistrate Judge Bradley W. Rath’s Report and Recommendation recommends that Defendants Sheriff John Ledbetter, Geneva Drummond, and VitalCore’s Motions for Summary Judgment be granted, that Plaintiff Monnie Villarreal’s Motion to Amend be denied as moot, and that the Court dismiss this case without prejudice for failure to exhaust administrative remedies.
In Monnie Villarreal v. Vitalcore, et al. No. 1:24-cv-99-HSO-BWR, United States District Court, S.D. Mississippi, (June 18, 2025) the District Judge adopted Magistrate Judge’s Report and Recommendation as the opinion of the Court.
BACKGROUND
Plaintiff Monnie Villarreal (“Plaintiff”) pled guilty to conspiracy to commit insurance fraud in the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Mississippi, and was sentenced to serve five years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections (“MDOC”). In 2024 Plaintiff violated the terms of his post-release supervision, and was ordered to serve the remainder of his sentence in MDOC custody, where he remained until his release in December 2024.
Plaintiff’s allegations stem from two incidents, an alleged denial of medical care and a purported failure to protect Plaintiff from violence at the hands of another inmate.
Plaintiff asserted that Defendants VitalCore and Nancy Unknown committed “attempted murder” by depriving him “of [a] proper dosage of insulin[,]” by not allowing him “to see a license[d] doctor[,]” and by forcing him to “live with high blood sugar.”
Plaintiff accused Sheriff Ledbetter and Drummond of “negligence and cruel punishment.” He asserts that he was assaulted by another inmate with a “broken wooden mop handle” on April 21, 2024, and that Drummond refused to answer his calls for help. Plaintiff filed three grievances during his incarceration at JCADC, all of which were submitted through the normal JCADC grievance system.
The Magistrate Judge recommended that Plaintiff’s claims be dismissed without prejudice for failure to exhaust administrative remedies under the Prison Litigation Reform Act. The Report and Recommendation highlighted that under the PLRA, “[e]xhaustion of administrative remedies through the prison grievance system is a prerequisite for lawsuits filed under § 1983.” Because Plaintiff had not filed any grievances related to the alleged incidents through the ARP, the Magistrate Judge found that Plaintiff had not exhausted his administrative remedies as to either of his claims.
DISCUSSION
Since exhaustion is a threshold issue that courts must address to determine whether litigation is being conducted in the right forum at the right time, judges may resolve factual disputes concerning exhaustion without the participation of a jury.
Plaintiff was not a pretrial detainee facing a new conviction but was instead a post-conviction inmate serving out the remainder of his sentence.
The JCADC Inmate Handbook required Plaintiff to use the JCADC grievance system and then the ARP grievance system before filing a lawsuit. The ARP was available to Plaintiff, and he has never maintained or argued that he used it to report the complained-of incidents.
CONCLUSION
It was ordered and adjudged that Defendants Sheriff John Ledbetter, Geneva Drummond, and VitalCore’s Motions for Summary Judgment were granted, and Plaintiff Monnie Villareal’s claims were dismissed without prejudice as to all Defendants for failure to exhaust administrative remedies.
ZALMA OPINION
Insurance fraud perpetrators are well known for their “Chutzpah” (Yiddish for unmitigated gall) and even when convicted and allowed to run free he violated the terms of his release and was incarcerated to serve the remainder of his sentence. He sued, in pro se, the Sheriff who ran the jail and others claiming many vicious actions against his person and health only to find he had failed to use the administrative remedies available to him so his suit was dismissed proving that no matter how creative his pleading crime does not pay.
(c) 2025 Barry Zalma & ClaimSchool, Inc.
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The Largest Residential Burglary of All Time
Post 5407
Fraud & the Fear of Bad Faith Suits
Posted on July 22, 2026 by Barry Zalma
See the full video at https://lnkd.in/gWQQEySW and at https://lnkd.in/gyhdK6wv
This is a Fictionalized True Crime Story of Insurance Fraud explaining why Insurance Fraud is a “Heads I Win, Tails You Lose” situation for Insurers. The story is one of a collection designed to help to Understand How Insurance Fraud in America is Costing Everyone who Buys Insurance Thousands of Dollars Every year and Why Insurance Fraud is Safer and More Profitable for the Perpetrators than any Other Crime.
This is a Fictionalized True Crime Story of Insurance Fraud explaining why Insurance Fraud is a “Heads I Win, Tails You Lose” situation for Insurers. The story is one of a collection designed to help to Understand How Insurance Fraud in America is Costing Everyone who Buys Insurance Thousands of Dollars Every year and Why Insurance Fraud is Safer and More Profitable for the Perpetrators than any Other Crime.
After ...
Chutzpah is not Enough
Post 5397
Posted on July 20, 2026 by Barry Zalma
See the video and at https://lnkd.in/gNUs2XzT and at https://lnkd.in/g2MawyzX
Magistrate Issues a Search Warrant if there is a Fair Probability that Contraband or Evidence of a Crime will be Found in a Particular Place.
In United States Of America v. Frank Suess, et al., CRIMINAL No. 3:24-308, United States District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania (July 16, 2026) a federal grand jury indicted Frank Suess, Melissa Driscoll, and others in a 55-count health care fraud and anti-kickback prosecution arising from an alleged scheme involving medically unnecessary prescription “foot baths.”
As part of the investigation, the FBI obtained an August 19, 2022 warrant to search Driscoll’s Sterling Pharmacy Yahoo email account for emails from January 1, 2018 through December 31, 2020. Driscoll moved to suppress the resulting evidence, arguing that the warrant lacked probable cause, was overbroad, and rested on material misstatements and omissions.
LAW:
The ...
Fraud Shouldn’t Pay
Post 5396
See the video and at https://rumble.com/v7ctgmq-the-great-jewel-theft.html at https://youtu.be/aRbQ2sJfGwA
This is a Fictionalized True Crime Story of Insurance Fraud explaining why Insurance Fraud is a “Heads I Win, Tails You Lose” situation for Insurers. The story is one of a collection designed to help to Understand How Insurance Fraud in America is Costing Everyone who Buys Insurance Thousands of Dollars Every year and Why Insurance Fraud is Safer and More Profitable for the ¬¬¬Perpetrators than any Other Crime.
The Insured purchased, for the first time in his life, a policy of Personal Articles Floater Insurance (PAF) scheduling $125,000 worth of ladies jewelry. He advised the insurer that the jewelry was always kept in a class E safe at his residence. He also told the insurer that he was employed full time as the owner of a gasoline service station and that he had never been canceled or suffered a previous loss.
One month after the policy was ...
Day Care Owner Loses Subsidies Because She Criticized State
Post 5421
Posted on August 11, 2026 by Barry Zalma
First Amendment Right Will be Allowed to Go to Trial
In Betsey J. Grant v. Maine State Department Of Heath And Human Services, No. 1:25-cv-00490-JAW, United States District Court, D. Maine (August 6, 2026), Betsey J. Grant, a licensed childcare provider and operator of Tiny Tikes Daycare in Trenton, Maine, sued Maine DHHS and several employees after she publicly criticized DHHS before Maine’s Government Oversight Committee and alleged that officials retaliated against her.
She claimed DHHS imposed and extended a conditional license, published stigmatizing information, interfered with subsidies and program funding, removed her from a food program, rescinded an expansion grant, and used biased or falsified evidence in licensing proceedings. Following the March 10, 2023, GOC testimony, Ms. Grant alleges that foster children's subsidies (approximately $30,000) were withheld; she was removed from the ...
Rescission for Material Misrepresentation
Post 5418
Posted on August 5, 2026 by Barry Zalma
An Insurer May Rescind An Insurance Policy Where The Applicant Made A Material Misrepresentation In The Application.
In Union Mutual Fire Insurance Company v. 844 Knickerbocker, LLC, et al. No. 2024-10359, Index No. 602824/22, 2026 NY Slip Op 04789, Supreme Court of New York, Second Department (July 29, 2026) Union Mutual Fire Insurance Company issued commercial insurance policies to 844 Knickerbocker, LLC, and Sanjaya Mallick based on applications stating that the insured property contained two apartment units. After an underlying personal injury action was filed, Union Mutual determined that the property actually contained three apartment units and rescinded the policies on the ground that the defendants had made a material misrepresentation in the applications.
LAW:
A misrepresentation is material if the insurer would not have issued the same policy, or would have issued it only on different terms, had the true ...
Rescission for Material Misrepresentation
Post 5418
Posted on August 5, 2026 by Barry Zalma
An Insurer May Rescind An Insurance Policy Where The Applicant Made A Material Misrepresentation In The Application.
In Union Mutual Fire Insurance Company v. 844 Knickerbocker, LLC, et al. No. 2024-10359, Index No. 602824/22, 2026 NY Slip Op 04789, Supreme Court of New York, Second Department (July 29, 2026) Union Mutual Fire Insurance Company issued commercial insurance policies to 844 Knickerbocker, LLC, and Sanjaya Mallick based on applications stating that the insured property contained two apartment units.
LAW:
A misrepresentation is material if the insurer would not have issued the same policy, or would have issued it only on different terms, had the true facts been disclosed. To establish materiality as a matter of law, the insurer must submit documentation of its underwriting practices, such as manuals, guidelines, bulletins, or rules addressing similar risks.
DISCUSSION/ANALYSIS:
As a result, the...
